Meet Your Advocate

About Anna

We have a conspicuous family. During the few summer months we are blessed with here in Minnesota, you can find me pushing a triple stroller filled with my little humans, walking a tiny brown and white dog attached to a pink leash. We live on the corner of Potty Training Street and Thank Goodness it’s Friday Ave., in a discolored yellow house that we bought and grew out of in approximately three and a half minutes. My main squeeze and I have been married since 2011, and we’ve been adding kiddos to our family at a rate that says we’ll have 20-ish by next week.

Whenever people ask, which is often, I always tell them the same thing - adoption has been our hardest, scariest, VERY BEST YES. It has changed us from the inside out. It is everything we never knew we needed but always hoped we could someday be a part of. BUT. It is hard. It can be scary and lonely and isolating. We have walked through trenches, mountaintops, and fire with our kiddos. We have spent hours upon hours researching agencies, filled our days with fundraising to make payments, lived for months in other countries, lived every morning of the week in therapy, spent so many nights awake, and eaten so many meals in tears. And we wouldn't change a thing about our family or the way it works - but... with all of these hours and days and years spent with my life revolving around adoption and all that comes with it, I couldn't stop thinking - there has to be a way to make this easier for other people. There has to be a way to build this community. There has to be a way for me to take all of these stored up experiences, and use them to help bring more children into families.

If you have been considering adoption, I want to talk to YOU. If you have said no because the finances are SO BIG, I want to fundraise for you. If you are just beginning and feel overwhelmed with the thousands of options - I want to research for you. If you are home and desperate for a listening ear, I want to listen to you. If you are struggling and need an outsiders opinion, I want to have a conversation with you.

All I want in this life is to be a good wife, the best mother that I can be to my kids, and help more children find their families by taking away the overwhelming burdens that come with adoption and beyond. When I was searching for the perfect career for me after leaving the adoption agency field, I simply couldn't find it. And because of that, I decided to create it myself. Welcome to The Gathering Room - Hope and Help for Adoptive Families. A safe space for you to ask any question, offload many of the tedious burdens that come with the process, and find a friend to walk this path with you when you need one the most.